(Public Pack)Agenda Document for Buckinghamshire Historic
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Buckinghamshire County Council Visit democracy.buckscc.gov.uk for councillor information and email alerts for local meetings BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HISTORIC Agenda ENVIRONMENT FORUM Date: Thursday 5 March 2020 Time: 2.00 pm Venue: Mezzanine Room 3, County Hall, Aylesbury Agenda Item Page No 1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE / CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP 2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests 3 MINUTES 3 - 10 Minutes of the meeting held on 12 September 2019 to be confirmed. 4 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES 5 HS2 UPDATE Nick Shepherd, Historic Environment Manager, HS2 Ltd. 6 BUCKS CONSERVATION TRUST - UPDATE ON QUARRENDON Update from Mike Woods, Buckinghamshire Conservation Trust. 7 UPDATES FROM PARTNER AGENCIES 7A NATIONAL TRUST 7B BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT PARTNERSHIP 7C COUNTY MUSEUM 7D MILTON KEYNES COUNCIL 7E BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY TEAM 11 - 38 7F CONSERVATION OFFICERS 7G BEACONS OF THE PAST 8 UNITARY UPDATE Update from David Sutherland, Head of Planning & Environment, and Eliza Alqassar, Environment Manager. 9 FUTURE OF THE BHEF AND THE EMERGENCY RECORDING FUND Open discussion. 10 ANY OTHER BUSINESS 11 DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING 10 September 2020, 2pm. Mezz 3, Council Offices, Walton Street, Aylesbury. If you would like to attend a meeting, but need extra help to do so, for example because of a disability, please contact us as early as possible, so that we can try to put the right support in place. For further information please contact: Anne-Marie Kenward on 01296 382236, email: [email protected] To all Members of the Buckinghamshire Historic Environment Forum Bill Chapple OBE, Buckinghamshire County Council Nick Crank, Milton Keynes Council Mike Farley, Bucks Archaeological Society Clive Harriss, Buckinghamshire County Council Hugh McCarthy, Wycombe District Council Gary Marshall, National Trust Richard Newcombe, Aylesbury Vale District Council Richard Pushman, Bucks Heritage Champion Chris Welch, Historic England Chris Williams, Natural Environment Partnership Agenda Item 3 Buckinghamshire County Council Visit democracy.buckscc.gov.uk for councillor information and email alerts for local meetings BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HISTORIC Minutes ENVIRONMENT FORUM MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT FORUM HELD ON THURSDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2019 IN MEZZANINE ROOM 2, COUNTY HALL, AYLESBURY, COMMENCING AT 2.05 PM AND CONCLUDING AT 4.25 PM. MEMBERS PRESENT Members Organisation Mr W Chapple OBE (Chairman) Buckinghamshire County Council Mr M Farley Bucks Archaeological Society Mr C Harriss Buckinghamshire County Council Mr H McCarthy Wycombe District Council Newcombe Aylesbury Vale District Council Mr C Williams Natural Environment Partnership Officers Organisation Mrs E Alqassar Buckinghamshire County Council Mr P Clements Buckinghamshire County Council - Historical Records Officer Ms L Lawrence Buckinghamshire County Council Levitt Aylesbury Vale District Council Shave Buckinghamshire Museum Trust Ms J Wise Buckinghamshire County Council 1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE / CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP Apologies were received from Mr N Crank, Mr G Marshall, Mr M Petchey, Mr B Thorn, Mr A Wood, Mr D Sutherland and Mr P Markham The Chairman gave his apologies for needing to leave the meeting at 3.30pm. Mr H McCarthy would step in as Chairman from that point. 2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were none. 3 MINUTES The following changes would be made to the minutes of the last meeting: 3 Ms E Alqassar’s name would be corrected throughout. Under item 7 – “Scheduled 17 works- planning applications were outside of parliament and therefore not automatically covered by the act.” o The full name of act would be included - “HS2 Schedule 17 applications for works are not covered by the Phase 1 Act of Parliament.” RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2019 were AGREED as an accurate record with the above changes and signed by the Chairman. 4 MATTERS ARISING The following points from the meeting held on 4 March 2019 were discussed: Item 5 – HS2 update, relocation of grassland habitat. It was confirmed that the relocation site was large enough to include the requested 120% like for like replacement of habitat at just over 2 hectares. Item 7 – Quarrendon, Aylesbury, site update. Ms E Alqassar, Environment Manager, Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC), had had no further communication about building works. Ms Alqassar would invite the Bucks Conservation Trust to report at the next meeting. ACTION: Ms Alqassar Item 13 - HBSMR-web and the archaeology web pages – query over link with Landscape First project Ms J Wise, Historic Environment Records Officer, BCC, confirmed she had been involved with the project but had not seen the recently circulated draft paper. Ms Wise would contact Mr D Sutherland, Head of Planning and Environment, BCC, for more information. ACTION: Ms Wise 5 HS2 UPDATE Dr D Hounsell, Fusion, gave a presentation a copy of which would be appended to these minutes. Dr Hounsell highlighted the following areas: Updates on the sites in C1 of the programme. An overview of the upcoming actions for C2a and C2b sites. The following points were discussed as a result of questions from members of the forum: Dr Hounsell stated the long house at site C2a North Portal, Great Missenden was approximately 8m by 15m with datable material from 7th Century. Dr Hounsell stated there would be further examination of a Roman farm at Doddershall deserted medieval village (DMV). 4 A member of the forum asked what would happen to St Mary’s churchyard in the event of HS2 being cancelled. It was felt there should be mitigation work to restore the churchyard as well as the publication of information gathered to date. Dr Hounsell would raise the issue with HS2 colleagues. ACTION: Dr Hounsell There were concerns that HS2 had not been sharing findings with the wider public as promised. It was noted that no Historic Environment Records (HER) had been published in some time. Dr Hounsell confirmed that Fusion and HS2 were still in discussions as to what form the archive would take. Likely options were to use existing local storage authorities or to create their own central database. Following Heritage Sub Group meeting on 18 September Ms Lawrence would approach HS2 if there had been no satisfactory update. ACTION: Ms Lawrence Dr Hounsell confirmed that Fusion would be working to a programme and did not expect there to be any changes to timescales if expected HS2 delays were formalised. Members of the forum asked that a representative from HS2 be invited to the next meeting so questions could be addressed directly. ACTION: Ms Alqassar RESOLVED: Members of the forum NOTED the update. 6 BEACONS OF THE PAST Dr W Morrison, Chiltern Conservation Board (CCB), gave a presentation a copy of which would be appended to these minutes. Dr Morrison highlighted the following: The Chilterns LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Portal was now online at https://chilternsbeacons.org/wp/: o The portal contained data from a bespoke LiDAR survey of the Chilterns and some surrounding areas which was now available to view online. Dr Morrison had also presented Buckinghamshire County Council’s Archaeology staff with a hard drive containing the data. o The survey was the largest LiDAR survey for archaeology purposes in the country covering 1400 km2. o The project was seeking volunteers to review data flagging potential sites of interest. Free e-learning would be provided and anyone could join. Tier one projects: o Magnetometer surveys at Desborough Castle had been inconclusive. Natural England had been sympathetic to plans for trench work in 2020. o Work at Seven Ways Plain, Burnham Beeches, was ongoing with the support of volunteers. Education and outreach: o The CCB were in the process of building an online portal to support teachers with continued personal development (CPD) and delivering 5 prehistory lessons. The aim was to promote the inclusion of prehistory on the National Curriculum and to provide accurate teaching resources. o CCB were working with local artists to produce work based on the LiDAR survey. o Various pop up and training events were planned. Events: o Chilterns Walking Festival, 5 – 10 October 2019. o Aylesbury Waterside Festival 14 September 2019. o Historic Routeways Walk, CCB - 13 October 2019 o Grimm’s Ditch Walk, CCB – 16 October 2019 Dr Morrison agreed with Ms S Shave, Buckinghamshire Museum Trust (BMT), that she and colleagues would promote the Buckinghamshire Museum Trust’s own prehistory events. https://www.buckscountymuseum.org/museum/schools/our-workshops/prehistory- workshop/ RESOLVED: Members of the forum NOTED the update. 7 NATIONAL TRUST UPDATE An update had been received from Mr G Marshall, The National Trust, and circulated as a supplement to the agenda. RESOLVED: Members of the forum NOTED the update. 8 BUCKS NATURAL ENVIRONMENT PARTNERSHIP UPDATE Mr C Williams, Natural Environment Partnership (NEP) gave a verbal update. Mr Williams highlighted the following: The partnership currently had three areas of focus: o Ensuring all local plans addressed environmental issues and biodiversity offsetting. Included commenting on local proposals such as the Heathrow expansion consultation. o The Oxford/Cambridge arch proposal. The partnership had produced a map and environmental strategy for the ARC. Their proposal was currently out for consultation with five partnership agencies and would be shared once finalised. o Project work on: . River Ouse. Parkland garden. Aylesbury Garden Town woodland including the planting of black poplar trees. Reopening Milton Keynes to Bedford canal branch. Burnham Beeches. 6 The following points were discussed as a result of questions from members of the forum: It was confirmed the NEP and Ms E Alqassar, Environment Manager, BCC, had already spoken about the issues of pasture verses woodland and the importance of supporting the historic environment Local Area Plans would help to identify preferred areas of development. NEP would be asking for a 20% replacement of biodiversity along with carbon offsetting for all schemes either directly or via funding.